1 Samuel 19:11-17 & Psalm 59

“Deliver me from my enemies, O my God. Set me securely on high away from those who rise up against me.”
Psalm 59:1
“So Michal let David down through a window, and he went out and fled and escaped. And Michal took the household idol and laid it on the bed, and put a quilt of goats’ hair at its head, and covered it with clothes.”
1 Samuel 19:12,13

Times of severe stress and personal danger reveal where our trust lies.

Psalm 59 is one of those rare psalms that identifies the specific circumstances under which it was written. Despite his recent promise not to harm David (1 Sam. 19:6), when “the evil spirit from the Lord” came upon Saul again, he returned to his old ways and again attempted to pin David to the wall with a spear. When that didn’t work, Saul sent men to watch David’s house with instructions to kill him in the morning. In this circumstance, David chose to flee rather than fight and, with the help of his wife, he escaped. The account in 1 Samuel gives us no idea of David’s state of mind at this point. But the Holy Spirit wanted us to know how David felt as he ran for his life, and so He inspired David to write this psalm. When the two texts are compared, they provide us with a fascinating contrast between the faith of David and that of his wife, Michal.
Let’s consider the text in 1 Samuel first, since that is where we are told about Michal’s reaction in this stressful situation. Remember, she was Saul’s daughter and had been “given” to David as a reward for his killing of 200 Philistines. Whatever her feelings for David might have been, this account makes it quite clear that “the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.” Like her father, Michal reacted to stress not by turning to the Lord, but by resorting to subterfuge, deception and outright lies. It is quite likely that Michal wasn’t merely concerned about the safety of her husband, but also about her own. She had every right to be afraid of her father’s anger because Saul’s rage threatened even his own children. (See 20:32,33)
So Michal helped David out the window and then set her plan in motion. She took the large household idol, covered its head with goats’ hair, dressed it in David’s clothes and laid it in his place on the bed. There was no faith in Michal’s heart – her trust was in her own schemes. There was no loyalty in her either, for when she faced her father, she quickly accused David, the very one she was supposed to protect. She turned to her god in her time of need, but used it merely as a tool in working out her own plan. And, as the situation became more threatening, her fear only increased. In this, Michal was like many “fair weather” Christians – those who are fine with religion as long as things are going well. But once the stress mounts or danger closes in, they demonstrate by their behavior that their trust is in themselves and not in God. The result is that worry and fear are their only refuge.
In the 1 Samuel account, David appears to be almost passive, depending upon Michal for a plan of action. More than that, he seems to be complicit in her plan for deceiving Saul’s messengers. If we had only this history, we could easily imagine David stunned at the course of events and hoping that Michal’s plan would somehow delay his pursuers long enough for him to escape. But David’s psalm paints another picture entirely. Here we see the complaint of a godly man who has been falsely accused and betrayed. But we also see that same man consciously taking refuge in God alone. He tells the Lord about his circumstances and describes the insolent behavior of those who were sent to kill him. And then, in graphic detail, David prays for their destruction – calling upon God to exercise vengeance upon his enemies. Yet, underneath it all is the assurance that God is on His side, that God is his refuge and strength.
This psalm clearly shows us where David’s trust lay. He had not forgotten the Lord at all. In fact, he called upon the Lord to take note of his circumstances. The ESV has David crying out to God in Ps. 59:4 saying, “Awake, come to meet me, and see!” David’s reaction to this threat on his life is to turn to God – even as he fled from Saul’s men – and to take refuge in God as his “Strength” and his “Stronghold.” The psalm concludes with David’s fear removed and his vengeful spirit transformed into a song of praise. He had been reminded through prayer of God’s love for him and he promised that he would “sing aloud of God’s steadfast love in the morning.” (Ps. 59:16 ESV)
If David could find such strong consolation in God’s love with the relatively small amount of God’s Word that he possessed, surely we can do the same. When times of stress and danger confront us, we have the assurance of God’s eternal love for us manifested in the gift of His own Son. May God give us the grace to demonstrate by our words and actions that He is our refuge, especially in the most difficult situations of life.